December/January, 1998
No. 032/VI/97
cover story
Christians in
Paradise
How Christianity came
to Bali
Once Upon a
New Years Eve
MC-ing a New Year's
Eve party during a
blackout
bali focus:
nusa dua and
jimbaran
The Origin of
Nusa Dua
A fable
People of a
Fertile Sea
The fishers of
Jimbaran beach
Center Stage
Steve Charles revamps
the Candraloka
Amphitheatre
Nusa Dua Nights
How to survive them
The Sacred
Wilderness
Colonial encounters with
Bali's southern peninsula
arts and
culture
Latter Day
Laksamana
A.A.M. Djelantik's
recently launched
autobiography
Kulkul
new Fiction by Gde
Aryantha Soethama
Who are Bali's literati?
beyond
bali
An Eddy in The
Counter of Time
Kayaking off the west
coast of Lombok
Slick and Cool in
Sengigi
Round midnight at the
famed Lombok resort
regular
Fashion
Adventure
Into the blue
Food
Jewel of the southren rim
Jungle Drums
Bali Update
On the Road
Home Grown
Made Adi Putra
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The Rat Pack
Cling Crack DONG! Or
something approximating those words the sound of the experimental music ensemble, playing
instruments made of junk retrieved from rubbish dumps. All of a sudden, their performance
was cut short when a member of the audience leapt to his feet and began to recite poetry.
"..... what? A savage game of death?/gods of this island approved cockfighting"
(Frans Nadjira)
Such sponteneity is common at the Rajer Babat, an annual arts festival held in Negara, West Bali. If the annual government-sponsored festival at the Arts Centre in Denpasar is considered mainstream, this event has become something of an alternative arts festival. While the official Festival of the Arts has strong emphasis on traditional art forms, Rajer Babat, started up seven years ago by a group of poets, attracts mostly modern artists - poets, writers and performers from all over Bali.
To say Bali is not famed for its poets is a gross understatement. It is painting and sculpture that are most often held up as modern Balinese art's greatest achievements. Highly praised internationally, Balinese painters and craftspeople frequently travel abroad to teach or exhibit their works. Moreover, Bali's successful visual arts industry is one of the island's great economic achievements and, as painter and poet Frans Nadjira points out, this impacts on the quality of the art itself. "Many people in Bali who want to become painters do so for economic reasons," he notes. His comment begs the question: why would anyone want to be a poet? The reasons are many, as the historical development of modern Balinese poetry recounted below shows, but the one thing they do not include is economics.
WRITING FOR FREEDOM
Memboeat badjoe oekoer badan/Agar pasti lagi sepadan/Memboeka soeara didalam /medan/Menyimpang jangan dengan toejoean ...To ensure a good fit on making a shirt/Take the appropriate measurements first/Let your voice go in the open terrain/Do not deviate from the aim (Akobar, 1927)
The above poem was published in the May 1927 edition of Suryakanta, the first Bali-based literary publication to include essays, articles and poetry in both Bahasa Melayu and Balinese, and as such the flagship of Bali's first generation of modern writers. The use of Bahasa Melayu, the forerunner of the now national language Bahasa Indonesia, was a political statement that referred to Suryakanta's the anti-caste, pro-democracy agenda.
Lebih baik lari/mengejar kemajoean/daripada berdiam diri/jadi tontonan ...Much better to/pursue advancement/than be a silent display (Anonymous, 1927)
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